POLS 340, POLS 397H: Political Analysis
Professor
Barbara Burrell
Tuesday
and Thursday,
Dusable 170 Fall 2006
Office:
115 Zulauf ,
Office
Hours: Wednesdays,
Teaching
Assistant: Brian Frederick
E-mail: bfrederi@niu.edu, Phone: 753-1818
Office: DuSable 476, Office Hours:
Thursday,
Course
Description: The study of politics involves seeking
answers to political problems, puzzles and questions. In this course we will learn how political
scientists have engaged in political inquiry with a focus on developing and
implementing systematic research agendas.
Think about important concepts, for example, power, representation, and
participation. How might we go about studying these concepts so central to
political life, especially democratic political life? How might we answer the
question, for example, of how widely power and influence is distributed in the
In
the first weeks of the course students will be introduced to social science
research by discussing how one develops research questions and hypotheses. What
is a hypothesis anyway? We will consider
different research designs, that is, what are the different ways in which you
could go about investigating the political puzzle you wish to solve? The second
part of the course provides students with the tools necessary to test
hypotheses systematically and quantitatively. Here you will learn some basic
statistics. Statistics such as
percentages have become a staple of informed political analysis and of being a
good consumer of political knowledge.
Required text books:
Johnson, Janet Buttolph,
and H.T. Reynolds. 2005. Political Science Research Methods, 5th ed.
Pollock
III, Philip H. 2005. An
Rochefort, David A. 2006. Quantitative Methods in Practice:
These
books are available at the NIU bookstore. Students are strongly encouraged to
visit sites such as www.campusi.com to find cheaper, used versions of these
books (although students should not buy earlier editions of the books as they
have been updated substantially. Also,
if you buy the Pollock book online you must be sure that the CD is included
with it).
A
fee is required to take this course. That fee gives you access to the SOCQRL
Computer Lab in DuSable 222. You will be able to do
your assignments in the SOCQRL Lab and have trained tutors available to help
you. The lab is open Monday-Thursday from
Course Policies:
1. Attendance is required. I will take attendance each day. You will get
credit for attending class and will be penalized for not attending. If you are late to class after attendance has
been taken, you will not be allowed to sign in for the day. If you fall asleep in
class or your cell phone goes off or you disrupt the class in any other way, you
will lose credit for being in class that day. If you have an urgent need to
have cell phone on, please let me know ahead of time. No cell phones or other personal electronic
devices should be used in any way in class.
Class
will end at
Course Outline:
It
is important that reading assignments be done before the day in which they are
assigned.
NOTE: I reserve the right to change the
syllabus.
Week of Jan. 15th Introduction and Course overview
Week of January 22nd
Quantitative Methods in Practice, From Knowledge to Practice and Chap 1
ASSIGNMENT 1: Due in class on January 25th. Find an article about a public policy problem or political issue in the news media or in one of your other political science courses. What is the problem or question being addressed and how is it being addressed? What are the major concepts that the policy makers or researchers are dealing with? How are they going about studying the problem or question? Do they present some data? Do they have findings and if so, how have they reached them. You may need or want to go deeper than the news article by looking for more information about the study or approach to the problem on the researchers’ website. Just write a one-two page summary trying to answer these questions. This assignment will be the basis of class discussion so come prepared to describe your problem or issue.
Week of January 29th Different Research Designs
Johnson and Reynolds, Political Science Research Methods, chaps 5, 7, 8
Week of February 5th
Survey Research
Johnson and Reynolds, Political Science Research Methods, chaps 9, 10
ASSIGNMENT 2: Due in class on February 8. Find a public opinion poll in the national
news media and answer the following questions: who conducted the poll, whom did
they survey, how many people did they survey, what questions did they ask, what
response categories did they give people to choose from and what were their
findings, when was the survey conducted? What is your assessment of this poll
as a measure of public opinion. Attach the survey report to your paper.
Week of February 12th
February 13th - Guest lecture, Professor Rebecca Hannagan, experimental designs
Political Science Research Methods, chaps 9, 10
February 15th : Introduction to SPSS, beginning descriptive statistics and crosstabulations
Johnson and Reynolds, chap 11
Quantitative Methods in Practice, Chaps 6, 7
Week of February 19th : Continue descriptive statistics and crosstabulations
Assignment 3: We will examine the financing and vote getting of men’s and women’s campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives.
ASSIGNMENT
3 due in class on February 22nd.
Week of February 26: Review and Midterm examination
March 1st
Midterm Exam
Week of March 5th : Begin Making Comparisons, Measures of Association and Transforming Variables
Reading, Pollock, chap 3, Johnson and Reynolds, Chap. 12, pages 339-371
Week of March 12th - Spring Break
Week of March 19th
March 20th -Using Census data
March 22nd : Continue controlled comparisons, measures of association and transforming variables.
ASSIGNMENT #4 due in
class on March
25
Week of March 26th; Making Inferences about Sample Means
Pollock, chap 6
Week of April 2nd
April 3rd – Guest lecture, Professor Brendon Swedlow, “Risk as a political concept and doing risk analysis”
Chi-Square
and Measures of Association (Pollock, chap 7)
ASSIGNMENT 5, due in
class, April 5
Week of April 9th: Begin Bivariate Regression
April 12th – No class, Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting
Week of April 16th : Continue Bivariate Regression and start Multiple Regression
Johnson and Reynolds, chap 13, pages 403-428
ASSIGNMENT
6 due in class, April 19th
Week of April 23rd : Multiple Regression, cont., Dummy Variables and Interaction Effects, Logistic Regression (Pollock, chaps 9, 10
Pollock, chaps 9, 10, Johnson and Reynolds, chap 13, pages 429-451
ASSIGNMENT 7 due in
class, April 26
Week of April 30th Conclusion and Summation
Week of May 7th - Final Examination, Tuesday, May 8th,
Quantitative
Methods in Practice Assignment:
As
you read each article take note of the following factors:
1. What is the main
research question? Make a list of the major concepts being studied.
2. What is the research
methodology being used to address this research question?
3. What hypotheses, if any,
are developed to answer the research question?
4. What data are used in
the study?
5. What statistics are
used?
Create
a type of spreadsheet similar to the one at the beginning of the text, to sum
the data you have collected in response to these questions. We will work together to get this spreadsheet
started and determine what the final product will look like. Students must turn
in their completed spreadsheet at the end of the term. Due: in class, May 3
Grades:
Attendance/participation 10%
Assignments (7) 35% of grade (5% each)
Quantitative Methods Spread Sheet 10%
First examination 20%
Final examination 25%
Grading Scale
90%-100% - A 80%-89% - B 70-79% - C 60%-69% - D Less than 60% - F
Plagiarism Statement:
"The attempt of any student to present as his or her own work that
which he or she has not produced is regarded by the faculty and administration
as a serious offense. Students are considered to have cheated if they copy the
work of another during an examination or turn in a paper or an assignment
written, in whole or in part, by someone else. Students are guilty of
plagiarism, intentional or not, if they copy material from books, magazines, or
other sources or if they paraphrase ideas from such sources without
acknowledging them. Students guilty of, or assisting others in, either cheating
or plagiarism on an assignment, quiz, or examination may receive a grade of F
for the course involved and may be suspended or dismissed from the
university." Northern